Some new information here about one of the members of the wolfpack! More on her as we go along.

Lately I’ve been catching up on classic Gothic and early horror fiction. I won’t recommend to any of you the eye-scratching trial of patience that is Anne Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho - but I’ve been very much enjoying a collection of ghost stories by M.R. James. In a single clause of a single sentence in his story “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas” he manages to turn the entire tale from “mild Edwardian treasure hunt romp” to “get it off get it off agggggh.”

If you’re looking for some creepy-crawly business to get you through the long winter nights, be sure to pick up a collection of his best.

I just downloaded and read the Treasure of Abbot Thomas. Loved the paragraph which you mentioned, but felt that the denouement of the story was a significant let-down. It’s almost as if the author couldn’t think what to do after writing his jump-scare.